Riverdale

Dateline: Saturday, August 25, 2012.

Today was a particularly interesting Heritage Toronto Walk through the neighbourhood of Riverdale. I was not aware that there once was a railway station on DeGrassi Street, near Queen Street East. 
The Riverdale Railway Station was built in 1896, as part of the Grand Trunk Railway Line between Toronto and Montreal. 

In those days, the train tracks were level with the roadways throughout thecity, and there were so many accidents that the "Viaduct Project" was established to increase the grade of the tracks and build an underpass for Queen Street.
As a result of this project, the station was moved further up Degrassi (north) in 1927.

Here, in this picture, you can see that the station is lower than the train tracks, and a ramp has been built ot accommodate travelers.

With the decline in passenger use (folks were now using Union Station), the little station was closed in 1932, and eventually demolished in 1974.

The post that you see here, in Bruce Mackey Park  is situated at the end of the fence line that marked the station's entrance. These two items are all that's left of the Riverdale Railway Station. The north end of the park ends at Dundas Street East, where you will see another under pass for the tracks. This one dips because this section of Dundas was non-existent at the time when the tracks were being laid. 

The original street that extended from Broadview, was named South Street, and ended at the tracks. You can still see and walk on the original sidewalk, if you climb a small set of stairs. The walking tour crossed Dundas (at the lights) and went down Tiverton Avenue.
As we walked along this street, our walk leader, Gerald Whyte told us that numbers 15, 17, 19, and 21 Tiverton were actually built by non other than E.J. Lennox.

Here, I have taken a picture of number 17 - 19 Tiverton Avenue.

We continued walking along this street until we reached First Avenue. Here we could see some fine examples of Second Empire homes.

We continued along First Avenue until we came to St Mathew's Church at #135. Here we were treated to an unveiling of two plaques by the Toronto Heritage. One was dedicated to the Riverdale Railway Station, while the other was commemorating the Riverdale Heritage Conservation District.

This picture shows the plaques, a Scotia Bank representative, Councillor Paula Fletcher, Gerald Whyte and a board member from Toronto Heritage.

It should be noted here that the Riverdale Heritage Conservation District was established, primarily to protect some 224 properties  in Riverdale; and Councillor Fletcher was instrumental in the establishment of this important heritage conservation project.

The B&W photos are courtesy Toronto Archives, and the rest are my own. 

Chitwan Nepal

Dateline December 4 and 10, 2011:

I am currently staying at the Chitwan Rest House in Sauraha, Chitwan, Nepal, and will be here tonight and tomorrow; then on to Lumbini.

Went on a ride down the Ripti River in a Tharu dugout canoe, where we saw lots of birds and crocodiles. 

Then we went for a stroll through the jungle, where we saw spotted deer, sloth bear markings, and tiger pug marks. There was also a "runaway elephant" that was browsing with the local tamed ones.

It was great fun to watch the elephants bathing in the river, and later I went for an elephant ride in the Community Forest buffer zone.

I saw a one horned rhino and many deer....both spotted and Sambhar.

Two days later whilst on our way to Lumbini, our bus ran into a roadblock of some political persuasion. Apparently, it's quite common, and all traffic came to a standstill.
We were stuck for seven hours, but many of the locals seemed to disappear, after awhile. So here we were, a small group of five white people, waiting out the blockade..not knowing when it would end. SIGH!

Around 5 pm the blockaders decided to give it a rest for the night, and were letting vehicles through. We all rushed to get on various modes of transportation...whatever could be commandeered. As a result there was a huge traffic jam over the bridge, and we arrived in Bairawa around eleven that night. It was much to late to travel any further, so our little group sought out a hotel for the night.

The next morning, a Taiwanese woman and I left the hotel together and got hoodwinked into taking a cycle rickshaw the remaining 22 km to Lumbini.
We actually saw some buses along the way, but were told that they were not running due to the blockade. Our rickshaw driver (with the betel-stained teeth) was certainly out to make some money....but I think he earned it!

My new Taiwanese friend Liu Chiu Chaun and I ended up staying at the Korean Monastery for two days. It was quite a deal, even though the accommodations were dorms. 

We took a tour of some historical Buddhist ruins, and cycled around the Peace and Monastic zones. We also did some walking and visited the Buddha's birthplace in the Maha Devi Temple.